Was Larry Holmes scared of rematches?

Cooney was responsible for there being no chapter 2 with Lawrence. Holmes welcomed large numbers to his account. At one point I think he contacted Gerry to tell him to get it together and fight.

 

I agree with you in principle, but the need for Foreman-Frazier 2 is up there with a Tyson-Spinks rematch.

 

He surgically avoided them for sure and had the help of the alphabets .... never rematched Weaver till he was a wreck. Witherspoon. Norton lost to Shavers ...

 

An interesting bit about this is actually in Joe Frazier's book, where he devotes a chapter to the career of Marvis. In the most polite way possible (given that it's his son he's talking about), he basically says look, he was a small for his weight class powder puff puncher who froze up the second he got hurt and I got him a few mil in career earnings, that's a win given what I was working with.

 

Worse. If I were Frazier's manager, I'd be worried he might leave another fight with Foreman in a body bag. At least Spinks had the good sense to stay down when he realized it wasn't gonna happen.

 

Realistically, the Weaver and Bonecrusher rematches only happened because Holmes understood that he'd aged far better than them in terms of boxing ability. The Weaver rematch was a bit ugly -- Holmes made Weaver look like he had no idea how to fight anymore, then one-punch KO'd him. Weaver attempted to close the distance, Holmes hit him on the way in with a perfect right on the jaw, Weaver fell on his face and didn't move. (at least this is my memory of it)

 

If said fighter posed a heavy problem to him, yeah, he did.

 

If Larry Holmes was afraid of a rematch, what you listed are not arguments that support it.
Bernard Hopkins and Roy Jones Jr. had a fight, and a rematch 17 years later, but that is not an argument that either of them was afraid of a rematch.

 

He openly ducked Page and Thomas, and sure was in no hurry to unify.

And yes, Norton, Witherpsoon and Williams should have had rematches.